Longmont drains Jim Hamm pond, prepares for dredging

By Scott RochatLongmont Times-Call

Posted:
11/03/2012 06:08:13 PM MDT

Updated:
11/04/2012 02:42:56 PM MST

Cracks and the footprints of animals are seen in drying sediment in Jim Hamm Pond on Friday at the Jim Hamm Nature Area in Longmont. The pond will be drained to allow pond sediment to dry and then will be dredged to increase the water capacity and to improved the water quality.
(
Matthew Jonas
)

LONGMONT -- Every so often, you've got to muck things out.

Now it's Jim Hamm Pond's turn.

Longmont workers have drained the pond so that the bottom can be dried and dredged over the next two to three weeks. The muck cleaned out of the pond can be used as "fill" for construction and landscaping work.

Bob Allen of the city's public works department said it's been about five years since the last dredging, which is done to clean the pond and allow it to hold more water. The water drained out of the pond has been used for crop irrigation.

The draining and dredging can stir up a strong scent at times, Allen said, depending on how much plant material has fallen into the water. As water levels fall and the debris is dried out and exposed to oxygen, there can be a rotting smell.

A pipe is seen leading from the pond to a drain Friday at the Jim Hamm Nature Area in Longmont.
(
Matthew Jonas
)

"You start pumping up dirty gray water that can be smelly," he said. "You have a lot of cycles of dying vegetation and silt -- I think the technical term is 'muck.'"

According to city staff, the dredging isn't expected to affect wildlife in the area, since the animals would be able to relocate to nearby Union Reservoir.

The pond originally was built in 1879 by town engineer Carlton Calkins. The area was donated to the city as a nature area in 1974 by the Hamm family in honor of their son Jim, a military pilot who died in the Vietnam War.

The dredging does not have a regular schedule but occurs on an as-needed basis, Allen said.

There're already some spots that have plans for the muck, including the Jim Hamm Nature Area itself. Along 17th Avenue, the dredged-up bottom will be used to put up some berms and plant some trees, Allen said.

That said, if anyone wants some "pond bottom" for their garden, the city might be able to accommodate them. Contact the call center at 303-651-8416 -- and be prepared to bring your own wheelbarrow if the city says "yes."

"That clay material can be good for (gardens)," Allen said. "It holds the water really well."

Those with questions about the pond project can call the public works department at 303-651-8468.

MacIntyre says the completed project will be best in Pac-12There were bulldozers, hard hats, mud, concrete trucks, blueprints, mud, cranes, lots of noise and, uh, mud, during the last recruiting cycle when Colorado football coach Mike MacIntyre brought recruits to campus. Full Story

MacIntyre says the completed project will be best in Pac-12There were bulldozers, hard hats, mud, concrete trucks, blueprints, mud, cranes, lots of noise and, uh, mud, during the last recruiting cycle when Colorado football coach Mike MacIntyre brought recruits to campus. Full Story

Most people don't play guitar like Grayson Erhard does. That's because most people can't play guitar like he does. The guitarist for Fort Collins' Aspen Hourglass often uses a difficult two-hands-on-the-fretboard technique that Eddie Van Halen first popularized but which players such as Erhard have developed beyond pop-rock vulgarity.
Full Story